Ask HN: Qwant or DuckDuckGo?

I'm willing to stop using Google as my default search engine, and I would like to know what the HN community thinks about alternatives.

I'm currently hesitating between Qwant & DuckDuckGo, but feel free to advise another search engine if you like it better.

Thanks people ! :)

3 points | by jesuisuncaillou 1963 days ago

5 comments

  • philonoist 1961 days ago
    DDG.

    I've never heard about Qwant and did a little research about it by typing "!hn qwant" using DDG.

    Needless to say, the criticism leveled by HN community against Qwant is what exactly makes me thank DDG [news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15631473].

    The functionality of DDG coupled with some add-ons like like VimFx on Firefox gave me no reason to take a look back. Previous to these, I used to have accrued guilt at my browser looking at me impatiently and now, I am the one irritated at my browser's execution. I don't blame her. Its the processor speed, after all. :)

    If you want near google like results, use "!s <query>" for it to redirect to Startpage, which is another privacy aiming Search site.

    Or, if you are adamant on using Qwant, you have DDG getting as meta as it can get by using "!qwt <query>" or if you want a detailed list of Qwant's functionality and its specialized searches, hit up "!bang Qwant" and read on!

  • intertextuality 1963 days ago
    DDG: Due to privacy concerns and bang functionality. !a <term> searches amazon, !yt for youtube, !w wikipedia, etc etc. If DDG's results are not satisfactory, you can easily type !g to do an encrypted google search. I see no real downside other than DDG being a bit slower than google sometimes.
  • guilhas 1960 days ago
    I am not sure which is best. But searx also looks interesting.

    https://www.searx.me

  • kuratkull 1963 days ago
    DDG
    • jesuisuncaillou 1963 days ago
      Ok, but why ?
      • wingi 1963 days ago
        I switched 2 years ago to DDG and I am happy with the search results. Only 2 times I re-searched directly on google.

        Reasons on switching was the common german privacy understanding to keep my search history private.

  • BananaShoes 1963 days ago
    Startpage. https://new.startpage.com

    DDG gets all the publicity but, truth is, their search results are pretty poor. SP is Google Search anonymised. It also looks better.

    DDG's shebangs are great though. I wish SP would copy them.